When Governments Change the Past

Real Examples of State-Directed History Rewriting

Soviet Union: The Unperson

Under Stalin, people who fell out of favour were literally erased from photographs and records. Nikolai Yezhov, head of the secret police, was photographed alongside Stalin — until he was arrested and executed. The photo was then altered to remove him entirely. He became an "unperson."

Japan: Comfort Women and Nanjing

Japanese textbooks have been criticised for minimising or omitting the Nanjing Massacre (1937, estimated 200,000+ civilians killed) and the military's use of "comfort women" (forced sexual slavery of women from occupied countries). In 2015, the Japanese government pressured textbook publishers to soften language about these events.

Turkey: The Armenian Genocide

In 1915, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire. Turkey officially denies it was a genocide, calling it wartime displacement. Turkish textbooks reflect this position. Recognition of the Armenian genocide remains a diplomatic flashpoint.

China: Tiananmen Square

In 1989, Chinese students protesting for democracy in Tiananmen Square were met with military force. Estimates of deaths range from hundreds to thousands. In China, the event is censored from the internet, absent from textbooks, and largely unknown to young Chinese citizens.

Does Australia Do This?

Australia hasn't engaged in Soviet-style photo editing, but the "History Wars" of the 1990s-2000s showed that political leaders can influence how history is taught. The debate over whether to describe colonisation as "settlement" or "invasion" is, at its core, a debate about controlling the past.